Focalplane
Western Thunderer
I started building the chassis for this locomotive some time ago when helping my wife to renovate her holiday self-catering cottage in Borth Y Gest, North Wales. It was a timely project to relax with in between carpentry, flooring, painting and acting as general contractor for the specialist work. When the cottage was completed and ready to let, the Castle was put away for a rainy day. Last week I dug it out and started to do some more work while waiting on supplies for the Finney7 Princess Coronation kit.
Some history on the wheres and whys of this project. Like most railway fans I have always admired the Castle Class for its looks, performance and outward simplicity for a 4 cylinder locomotive. My prototype is 5070, Sir Daniel Gooch. Why? Because it was a Midlands based locomotive often to be seen at Stafford Road shed, Wolverhampton and immortalized in the painting Summer Saturday at Snow Hill by Philip Hawkins. I have a print of this painting hanging in the railway room and also a jig saw puzzle of the same waiting to be opened. The Large Pannier in the painting is also my chosen prototype for the Heljan model, number 4175. The Cornishman was also the only named train that used the North Warwickshire Line from Tyseley to Stratford-upon-Avon - I grew up in Earlswood, at the highest elevation on the line.
Like all David Andrews kits I have seen, the standard and quality of the Castle kit is near the top of the charts and once you have built one or two (my LMS Compound was the first) you pretty well know what to expect before opening the box. I added Slaters' wheels, an MSC motor/gearbox and Slaters' hornblocks and pickups. Originally I went with David's recommendation to use smaller drivers (from the King Class) but have since decided to go with the proper 6'9" diameter wheels as it is said to be possible to fit them in (I am almost there so I would agree with the recommendation, however, the ongoing thread will explain what I have had to do).
The next few posts will show what was done in early 2017. Everything was then put on hold as I decided to model Penmaenpool and Castles were not going to be a priority!
Some history on the wheres and whys of this project. Like most railway fans I have always admired the Castle Class for its looks, performance and outward simplicity for a 4 cylinder locomotive. My prototype is 5070, Sir Daniel Gooch. Why? Because it was a Midlands based locomotive often to be seen at Stafford Road shed, Wolverhampton and immortalized in the painting Summer Saturday at Snow Hill by Philip Hawkins. I have a print of this painting hanging in the railway room and also a jig saw puzzle of the same waiting to be opened. The Large Pannier in the painting is also my chosen prototype for the Heljan model, number 4175. The Cornishman was also the only named train that used the North Warwickshire Line from Tyseley to Stratford-upon-Avon - I grew up in Earlswood, at the highest elevation on the line.
Like all David Andrews kits I have seen, the standard and quality of the Castle kit is near the top of the charts and once you have built one or two (my LMS Compound was the first) you pretty well know what to expect before opening the box. I added Slaters' wheels, an MSC motor/gearbox and Slaters' hornblocks and pickups. Originally I went with David's recommendation to use smaller drivers (from the King Class) but have since decided to go with the proper 6'9" diameter wheels as it is said to be possible to fit them in (I am almost there so I would agree with the recommendation, however, the ongoing thread will explain what I have had to do).
The next few posts will show what was done in early 2017. Everything was then put on hold as I decided to model Penmaenpool and Castles were not going to be a priority!
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